Software-engineering research revisited

The author discusses three major changes that he suggests are occurring as a result of the software engineering industry adopting the industry-as-laboratory approach, in which researchers identify problems through close involvement with industrial projects and create and evaluate solutions in an almost indivisible research activity. This approach emphasizes what people actually do or can do in practice, rather than what is possible in principle. The three changes are a greater reliance on empirical definition of problems, an emphasis on real case studies, and a greater emphasis on contextual issues.<>